WHY YOU CAN'T GET IPODS AT A DISCOUNT. — Last week, USA Today reported that online sales in November increased 25 percent over those from 2005. If you've shopped for gadgets online this holiday season, you almost certainly found that the camcorder or DVD player you wanted was selling at a wide range of prices.

AllofMp3.com Sued for $1.65 Trillion! — I haven't been able to find information on the largest lawsuit in history but I'm sure this one is right up at the top. The RIAA (yes, I was just as shocked as you ) is suing the website AllofMP3.com on behalf of EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music …

Gentlemen Stop Your Linking — Cases involving pro se defendants are usually quite dangerous, not only to the defendant, but also to the rest of us: plaintiffs who are represented by decent enough law firms, if before a district judge without copyright experience can, and often do, get away with outrageous things.

Business biggies wade warily into viral video — Can conglomerates unite to take on YouTube? — To really make money from putting content like "The Colbert Report" online, Hollywood needs to follow an ad-supported model. — The creators of YouTube had a grassroots concept that turned into a viral goldmine.

French court favors personal privacy over piracy searches — PARIS: A French court has ruled that music companies and other copyright holders cannot conduct unrestrained Internet monitoring to find pirates. — The decision, which could leave record companies open to lawsuits in France …

16 Digital Photography Tips for Christmas — It's three days until Christmas so I thought a quick tutorial on the topic of Christmas Photography might be appropriate. — Here are 16 tips and ideas to try that come to mind for digital camera owners wanting to capture the big day:

The Venice Project: YouTube slayer? — Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis may not be household names, but the products they've created in the past, Kazaa and Skype, certainly are. The team of entrepreneurs is about to bring another product to market dubbed, "The Venice Project."

How to kill a personality — About a month ago, Fortune's Jeffrey O'Brien interviewed Seagate CEO Bill Watkins, and pulled the conversation's most memorable quote for the headline: "Let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap - and watch porn."

How I helped Spider-Man save Santa Claus — reporter's notebook Let me say this, right up front: I don't know much about the Marvel Comics universe and the mythology around its characters. — So forgive me for the egregious mistakes I've likely made in the comic book I created for this story …

XBox up on downloads — Amazon digital video sales are slow — Though a box office failure, Warner Bros.' 'Poseidon' is selling well as a high-def download through Microsoft's Xbox Live. — In a topsy-turvy year for the digital download biz, a videogame service in just a few million homes …

GOOGLE: A secret facility deep in the South — A secret facility deep in the South — Google's planning a $750m investment in what sounds like a huge server farm in South Carolina, if local press reports are accurate. A shell company, seemingly linked to the search engine, just bought 520 acres near Charleston.

Abbey Corps — One thing that I kind of like about Rocketboom is that I have never — done any press releases. I also dont have an email list; Until now, I've always — just fielded the incoming. I'm not against that kind of outreach, it's just — interesting that there has never been any.